cityeggs
Songster
I'm interested in trying the mama heat pad cave for our next two chicks. I borrowed a Brinsea plate brooder for our first 4 chicks last year, which worked just fine, but I'd like to have my own system, rather than asking to borrow it again. Instead of buying yet another thing, though, I already have a seedling mat and am trying to figure out if I can use that in lieu of a human heating pad for the MHP. All the info that I found on the long mama heat pad cave thread (admittedly, I didn't read all 48+ pages) mentions what setting to put the heating pad at, but not what the surface temp read-out should be. I know that with heat lamps, the ambient temp should be ~90F for the first week, decreasing by 5 degrees/week (or something close to that?). If using direct heat, what should the surface temp be? I checked my seedling mat and it's just slightly warm to the touch, reading 80F on the surface, and barely 85-86 when covered with a kitchen towel to trap a little more heat. Does this sound like the right temp for the surface of the heating pad? I feel like the Brinsea was significantly warmer to the touch, but I never thought to check it with a thermometer (hindsight - totally should have, thankfully, it worked just fine and our chicks were safe!)
I'm pretty sure I'll start them inside for the first two weeks, mostly because I don't feel like running an extension cord out to the coop for weeks at a time, but may try to introduce them to our 3-hen mini-flock with a mesh brooder within the coop after that, depending on space & temps by then. We're in the Bay Area, so right now daytime temps run 68-75, with evening temps around 58-63, though it will probably be a little warmer by the end of Aug when I pick up the chicks. Indoors, temp is typically 68-70 degrees.
I can buy a thermostat controller for the seedling mat if I need to make it warmer than 80-85F, but reviews are widely variable on accuracy and quality, with of course cheaper ones being a crap-shoot, and again, at that point, maybe I should just buy a heating pad that should've at least gone through some safety testing bc of its design for use on humans, which would cost less than the thermostat...
I'm pretty sure I'll start them inside for the first two weeks, mostly because I don't feel like running an extension cord out to the coop for weeks at a time, but may try to introduce them to our 3-hen mini-flock with a mesh brooder within the coop after that, depending on space & temps by then. We're in the Bay Area, so right now daytime temps run 68-75, with evening temps around 58-63, though it will probably be a little warmer by the end of Aug when I pick up the chicks. Indoors, temp is typically 68-70 degrees.
I can buy a thermostat controller for the seedling mat if I need to make it warmer than 80-85F, but reviews are widely variable on accuracy and quality, with of course cheaper ones being a crap-shoot, and again, at that point, maybe I should just buy a heating pad that should've at least gone through some safety testing bc of its design for use on humans, which would cost less than the thermostat...